"In the past, Turkey already suffered damage as a result of sanctions," he said. "Sanctions against our neighboring countries and partners also inflicted damage on our economy," he added. "This is the reason why we still haven’t joined sanctions against Russia, favoring political measures," the Turkish top diplomat added.

According to Cavusoglu, "Russia and the United States have been imposing sanctions on each other, the European Union is preparing measures against the US because the US sanctions may negatively affect the EU." "We seek to solve issues through dialogue so that our economy is not affected," the Turkish foreign minister pointed out.

The European Union began to impose sanctions on Moscow following the March 2014 events in Ukraine. On March 6, 2014, the EU summit made a decision that in case tensions in Crimea did not ease, the European Union would exert pressure on Russia.

On August 4, 2017, the EU expanded sanctions on Russia citing the delivery of Siemens turbines to Crimea in breach of restrictions. The European Union blacklisted Russia’s Technopromexport and Interavtomatika companies, as well as Russian Deputy Energy Minister Andrei Cherezov, Head of the ministry’s Department for Operational Control and Electricity Management Evgeniy Grabchak and Technopromexport CEO Sergei Topor-Gilka.